Project Management For Business And Engineering

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will hardly be the first choice of students and I suspect that the principal resting place of this impressive hardback book will be on the shelves of libraries, where it will become a useful reference resource. However, there are other versions. One of these is a CD-ROM, which includes an intranet license from the publisher to allow its contents to be accessed by all interested company staff. In spite of its high price, I judge that the most useful format is the loose-leaf edition. Lecturers and training professionals will find that the included photocopy

rights are valuable, allowing sections to be copied and distributed freely to students as course handouts. The accuracy and clarity of the text are ideal for that purpose. Dennis Lock 29 Burston Drive, Park street St. Albans, Herts AL2 2HR, UK Tel.: +44 1727 87 3246 E-mail address: [email protected]

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.07.004

John M. Nicholas, Project Management for Business and Engineering, second ed., Elsevier, Butterworth– Heinemann, Burlington, MA, USA, ISBN 0-75067824-0, p. 603 (paperback), £29.99 The jacket of this heavy paperback carries a blurb which includes the following declaration: ÔThis book encompasses the full range of project management – everything from origins, philosophy, and methodology to actual applications. Nicholas describes concepts and techniques, such as project initiation and proposals, scope and task definition, scheduling, budgeting, risk analysis, control, project organization, and the often overlooked ‘‘people’’ side – project leadership, team building, conflict, and stress managementÕ. Many publishers make extravagant claims for their products but this example is substantially accurate. A good introductory chapter is written in fine style. This explains that the book is a mix of the Ôbusiness side of project managementÕ and the Ôhuman and organization sideÕ. Professor Nicholas writes that his earlier practical project management experience included R&D projects in the aviation industry and software applications projects in banking. Currently he teaches project management at Loyola University, Chicago, where he has been based for more than 10 years. The author owns that he has drawn not only from all this experience, but also from the published works of many other authors and suggestions from colleagues and reviewers. Thus, this work is a compilation of experience from many sources. It offers nothing new or startling, but gains its strength from the richness of these sources and the authorÕs skill in presenting the material in a clearly written and practical way. The introductory chapter is followed by 16 further chapters which form the main body of the text. These are arranged in four parts. Everything is adequately illustrated throughout with numerous tables and diagrams and the book contains many case studies. Almost every chapter follows the same pattern, in which the main subject text is followed by a chapter summary, re-

view questions, questions about a chapter case study, further case studies, and ÔendnotesÕ. These endnotes include, sometimes with comments, a bibliographical list of the many references used. There are three appendices, the first two of which I feel could easily and with benefit have been integrated into the main chapters. There is no glossary of project management terms and no separate bibliography, but there is a good index of all the authors cited throughout the 17 chapters (giving just the authorsÕ names and page references). The book ends with a fairly comprehensive general index. Case examples and case studies are scattered liberally throughout the work and some of these are developed through more than one chapter. One project study, the Logon Project, is used throughout the book to demonstrate various methodologies and this projectÕs very detailed ÔLogical On-line System Project Master PlanÕ is presented as the final appendix. Not all these cases are listed in the general index. It might be helpful in future editions to provide a separate index for all the case examples and studies, especially since this large book is not particularly easy to navigate and the reader who loses his or her place will spend some time in finding it again. Part I, Philosophy and Concepts, comprises two chapters which discuss the various forms that project management can take and contrasts these with other, nonproject, forms of management. The systems approach to project management is dealt with at some length, and there is a fairly substantial introduction to project organization (a subject dealt with more fully in Part IV). As in other parts of the book, there is a copious supply of real life project examples. These examples are drawn from widely different business areas and from projects of different shapes and sizes. Part II, again comprising two chapters, outlines the systems development cycle of a project. Many writers would call this the project life cycle. However, that can mislead because the true project life cycle does not end until a project is scrapped at the end of its useful operational life, so I consider NicholsonÕs title to be more

Book review / International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 253–256

appropriate. The author first guides us through the concept, proposal and contracting stages. Appendix B, Types of Contracts, could have been included here. Then, perhaps a little late in the sequence, project definition is detailed. This part of the book concludes by describing the execution and operation stages of the systems development cycle. Case illustrations are drawn from service organizations and government programmes as well as from industrial organizations. The eight chapters of Part III, Systems and Procedures, form the largest part of this book. The first of these chapters deals with Ôplanning fundamentalsÕ. It includes a good description of the initial planning processes, including work breakdown and organization breakdown structures, before introducing planning and scheduling using charts. Two following chapters give a very good account of network analysis methods, ranging from activity-on-arrow and activity-on-node logic diagrams to variants such as PERT and GERT. Resource scheduling and levelling are included. All these methods are well described with clear examples. A chapter on cost estimating and budgeting explains sensibly how costs are estimated, how errors arise, and deals well with project cost structures. I agree, for example, with the advice given here that Ôthe project manager should approve bottom–up estimates for work packages, but functional units should approve top–down estimates for the work expected of themÕ. Development of time-phased budgets is covered in this chapter along with cash flow schedules. There is a short section on project cost accounting and management information systems. The chapter on risk management follows the familiar, logical sequence of risk identification, assessment, prioritization and response planning. A supplement to this chapter includes even more risk analysis methods. Again, this is all dealt with in a very practical and clear way although, there is nothing in the risk response planning section on the possibility of risk transference through insurance. A project control chapter relies very much on the systems approach, in which data are collected, analysed, interpreted and used in forecasting. This chapter, not surprisingly, is the home for earned value analysis and performance analysis. There is mention of scope control and a good section on controlling changes. Detailed case studies are given. However, there is insufficient stress placed on the fact that these procedures, no matter how well implemented and how good the data, are all simply analytical and predictive. They are not in themselves control measures, but only a step towards control. Control must itself come from the readiness of managers to take appropriate action as soon as any variance is predicted. So this chapter describes a good basis for control, without dealing sufficiently with control itself.

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Another chapter deals in greater depth with project management information systems, and I was pleased to find that the author has included examples from several computer-based systems in addition to the ubiquitous Microsoft Project. However, a reference in the first, introductory chapter to Ôthe Microsoft Project disk included with this bookÕ appears to be an error, since my review copy had no such disk and no trace of ever having had one. Artemis, Primavera and Welcom products are among the packages illustrated and all the computer screen prints are clearly produced, benefiting from the large (254 mm · 204 mm) page format. There is, wisely, no attempt to recommend any particular package, but more could have been given on the methods for specifying an organizationÕs project management needs as the basis for choosing one (in the manner of managing any major project purchase using a specification and bid analysis procedure). A separate section is devoted to Web-based project management. The final chapter in Part III expands on the processes of project evaluation during and after a project and there is much on review meetings and reporting. After a section on project termination, there is a short piece on project extensions, which might more logically fit in the earlier chapter that dealt with project changes and changes in scope. Part IV, Organization Behavior, contains four final chapters, the first of which (Chapter 14) discusses pure project teams, the project matrix, and problems of integrating small sub-units within an organization as well as integration across different companies participating in larger projects. This discussion on organizations is presented with sound observations on the advantages and disadvantages of the team and matrix. Joint ventures and consortia are not given specific mention. Chapter 14 then proceeds into two sideline topics not often considered to be mainstream project management. The first of these is concurrent engineering, which I was pleased to find included and know to be a working philosophy that can benefit all the participants, including the customer. However, the second of these sideline topics is quality function deployment, which occupies an eightpage section. This last section does have some value in allowing the customerÕs needs to be taken into account but here, as in the remainder of the book, less attention is given to defining what is meant by stakeholders in the wider sense and the difficulty in satisfying all their needs (there is one paragraph on this in Chapter 15). Most of Chapter 15 describes the roles of people in project management and includes advice on recruiting the project manager, complete with a collage of sample newspaper advertisements. This is a good, exhaustive chapter that also deals with roles outside the project team, not forgetting top management. The next chapter (16) continues the focus on people in projects with a discussion on leadership and management styles, problems in teams, team building and inter-group problems.

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Chapter 16 ends with a long discussion about managing conflict and stress. The last chapter in this book (Chapter 17) deals effectively and in some detail with project failures, project successes, and factors that can lead to either of these results. Project failure is first defined and then possible causes of failure are described in detail. Similarly, project success is defined, and then factors for project success are detailed. Finally, there is a section that gives a ÔModel and Procedure for Analyzing Project PerformanceÕ, in which the causes of failure and success are compared on a force field analysis chart. Purchased materials and services account for a substantial proportion of project costs. Delays in obtaining materials and components can add weeks, months or even years to the duration of a project. Yet here is another otherwise good book that makes the common error of ignoring the purchasing function and materials management. There is no reference to materials nonconformities or shortages as possible causes of project failure. The only reference to materials, purchasing and the supply chain that I could find in the general index was Ôprocurement managementÕ, which led to a brief reference in the context of project feasibility studies and proposals. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.12.001

Purchasing and materials management aside, this is a valuable book at a very keen price. To quote again from the jacket blurb, it Ôis intended for business analysts, engineers, system developers, systems analysts, and others just getting started in project management, and for managers and administrators with little project management trainingÕ. I am not sure about all those analysts, but it would certainly be of use to practising and emerging project managers. This is a work that goes far beyond the requirements of a textbook for MSc or MBA students on management courses where project management is just one of many modules – with the short time usually available for reading they would be overwhelmed. It should find a place among students taking higher degrees where project management is the principal subject. University lecturers on all postgraduate management programmes will welcome the huge fund of case studies that can be extracted and used for group debates and coursework assignments. Dennis Lock 29 Burston Drive, Park Street St Albans, Herts AL2 2HR, UK Tel.: +44 1727 873246 E-mail address: [email protected]